Teriyaki Chicken

Anther staple of our New Year celebration is teriyaki chicken.  We have a family recipe that I have been tweaking for the past 30 years since it was handed to me once I got a feel for the taste.  When I make this at home, I use apple or cherry wood, when I am up north, I often use alder as there is a giant pile of it in my sister's backyard. The basic recipe is shoyu, mirin, sake, ginger, garlic, sugar.

Teriyaki Chicken Marinade:
3 cups shoyu
1-1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup sake
1/8 cup mirin
4 large cloves garlic, grated
1/2" piece ginger, grated

Mix all ingredients.  Allow to sit until sugar dissolves and pour over chicken pieces in seal-able container. Allow to marinate for at least 8 hours. If I am using whole, split, spatched or quartered chickens, I will go 12 hours.  The purpose of the marinade is to both introduce flavor and function as a brine as well.

 

After allowing the chicken the marinade, I will place it on a low fire until the chicken is cooked through, once the chicken is cooked, I will move the chicken over a hot fire to get some color and rendering on the skin.  If I am going to use the chicken for a presentation type of dinner, I then glaze with this marinade, which gives a very shiny finish and supports the flavor of the chicken.

Teriyaki Chicken Glaze:
1 cups shoyu
1 cups sugar
1/2 cup honey
1/8 cup mirin
1 clove garlic, pressed, no pulp
1/8 tsp. ginger juice

This year, we used boneless pieces and sliced or portioned for lunch.  The picture is not the loveliest, there seems to have been some malfunction with the photographer and this is the only cooked photo. Beer may or may not have been involved. I can't remember.